Pulmonary Fibrosis Following Radioiodine Therapy of Pulmonary Metastases from Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma
Abstract
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Pulmonary Fibrosis Following Radioiodine Therapy of Pulmonary Metastases from Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma Libo Chen,1 Yan Shen,2 Quanyong Luo,1 Yongli Yu,1 Hankui Lu,1 and Ruisen Zhu1 Dear Editor: Lung metastases from differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) are potentially curable, particularly in children and young adults who often live for decades with diffuse pulmonary metastases that have been appropriately treated. Moreover, radioiodine (131I) therapy, also with high cumulative activity, can lead to longer survival time or complete recovery (1). Up to the present time, 131I was the only available systemic modality to treat patients with metastatic disease and for this reason was repeatedly administered, even when it was not clearly effective (2). Since effective therapeutic strategies are scarce at present, severe complications of radioiodine treatment of pulmonary metastases from thyroid cancer, including radiation pneumonitis and ï¬brosis, cannot be ignored. Herein, we present a patient with DTC lung metastases, who developed pulmonary ï¬brosis following repeated high-dose radioiodine therapy with high cumulative 131I activity. A 12-year-old girl, who had a near-total thyroidectomy and functional lymph node resection for papillary thyroid carcinoma in November 2001, presented to our clinic due to suspected extensive pulmonary metastases from thyroid carcinoma. On computed